1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in personnel waiting guidance, placement and location control systems for guiding individuals in a controlled manner and also for providing floor located informational material to one or more individuals while in that pathway or otherwise at a particular place for an activity.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Personnel guidance and location control systems have been used in a variety of activities for controlling a path of movement for one or more individuals to a particular activity. These guidance and location control systems usually rely upon a group of poles with guide ropes to guide a group of individuals into a standing line, where each of the individuals in that line advance progressively toward a particular activity as, for example, a teller in a bank or otherwise to a ticket counter in an airline terminal, etc.
There have also been personnel guidance and location control systems which rely upon painted lines on a floor or ground surface to define a guidance path to a particular activity.
Each of these commercially available guidance and location control systems suffer from a number of drawbacks which limit their effectiveness. In the case of the poles and flexible ropes or cables, the individual components are loosely mounted on a floor surface and are subject to vandalism and theft. Secondly, they can be readily moved by the individuals for either enhancing the position of such individuals in a line of waiting individuals, or because of sheer nuisance purposes. Moreover, when these temporary personnel guidance and location control systems are located in an exterior environment, they must be periodically removed and stored to prevent further theft or vandalism as, for example, when an activity has closed.
Painted markers suffer a number of problems, such as the erosion and the wearing away, as previously described. Moreover, there are many ground surfaces in which it is virtually impossible to paint a straight line or other guide forming line. For this purpose, tapes have been applied to ground surfaces in order to produce a guide path. However, the tapes rub off or, again, after a period of time, loose their adhesiveness for securement to the ground surface.
In my aforesaid co-pending patent applications, there are set forth various guidance and location control systems which meet and, at least, partially overcome some of the previously described problems. However, these presently available personnel guidance, placement and location control systems do not provide any informational material at a floor level to the one or more individuals who may be walking or standing in that guide path. It has been recognized that while waiting in a line of individuals or in a guide path to reach a particular activity, the people standing are particularly amenable to reading or observing material which will at least occupy a portion of the time while waiting to reach or achieve a particular activity. There has been no commercially available or even proposed system which provides for the interchangeability of informational bearing substrates in a floor covering and which allows for an occupant in that pathway or at a particular location to observe that material. Moreover, it is important to constantly change that material, as, for example, from day to day, so that the user of the guidance and location control system will not become bored by a single message which seemingly never changes.
There have been individual placemats or, for that matter, floor coverings which bear information as, for example, placemats at soft drink dispensers identifying the location for obtaining a soft drink or otherwise containing promotional or advertising material. As a simple example, a particular placemat or floor covering in front of a drink dispenser could read “Drink Crush Cola”. However, in all such cases, the information bearing material is permanently provided and, if there was any need or desire to change the message or, for that matter, the graphic material surrounding the message, it would be necessary to use or install a new placemat. In like manner, carpet sections have been located at the entrance to various institutions as, for example, a carpet section bearing a hotel's name at the entrance to that hotel. However, and here again, the information in that carpet section is permanently incorporated in the mat and cannot be changed.
It would be desirable to provide a personnel location control system which not only provides cuing information to the individual for instructing placement of the individual at a particular location, but to also provide readily changeable informational bearing material on the floor surface. It would also be desirable to provide a personnel location control system which also functions as a guidance system for guiding a group of individuals in a selected pathway and also providing readily changeable informational bearing material thereon.